A 25-year-old woman suspected of DWI with her two sons in the car told police Wednesday she started drinking because of a fight with her boyfriend.

Jessica Nicole Bess asked District Court Judge Pennie Thrower to let her out of jail so she could help one of her sons get ready for school, which starts Monday.

“My son starts school and it’s his orientation today,” Bess told the judge Thursday while still in Gaston County Jail via video during a first court appearance.

Bess told the judge it would be impossible for her to raise even $1,000 for bail.

Thrower assigned the public defender’s office to her case, but added she would keep the bond at $50,000 because of the seriousness of the charges.

Bess of 602 N. Apple St., Gastonia, was stopped at a driver’s license checkpoint on East Main Street in Cherryville at 10:42 p.m. Wednesday.

Her 7- and 4-year-old sons were with her in the 1993 Cadillac she was driving at the time.

An assistant prosecutor said in court Bess had a blood-alcohol content of 0.12, but that she also may have been under the influence of drugs. Police reported finding a straw in the car that they believe had been used to ingest drugs.

North Carolina law considers a driver impaired with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 or above.

David Helms, a landscaper, told the court that Bess works for him.

“She’s not a bad person,” Helms said in court. “She had an argument earlier that day and took off in anger.”

Cherryville Police Officer J.M. McSwain reported in a warrant affidavit he noticed Bess smelled of alcohol at the driver’s license checkpoint. Her speech was slurred and she fumbled around in the car for identification.

Results of a chemical analysis of Bess’s blood was not immediately available.

Bess told police she had shut herself in a bathroom for hours calling people before leaving the residence.

McSwain wrote in the affidavit that Bess could have called police “to assist her away from the domestic situation.”

She was booked into Gaston County Jail at 1:58 a.m. Thursday. In addition to DWI, Bess faces charges of having an open container of alcohol in the car, possession of drug paraphernalia and two counts of child abuse.